Adobe picks new ANZ head

Adobe has appointed Chris Skelton — who has been leading the company's Digital Media business across Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and Korea — as its new managing director of Australia and New Zealand.

Chris Skelton will lead as Adobe Australia and New Zealand's new managing director, following Paul Robson's promotion to president of Adobe Asia Pacific.

Skelton has been leading Adobe's Digital Media business across Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia, and Korea since 2012 where the company said he worked to build out new markets and verticals in the Digital Media business.

Skelton, who will be reporting to Robson, expressed his excitement about the new position saying: "Adobe's Creative Cloud and Marketing Cloud businesses are now world-leading and I look forward to working with our partners and customers as they embark on their own journeys of digital transformation with Adobe.

"Adobe has invested heavily in Australia and New Zealand over the past three years. We have doubled our staff numbers in that time, we've established a Centre of Excellence in Sydney to drive enterprise sales across Asia, and we're also a pilot region to test new innovation for the company globally. I look forward to working with the team to continue to drive momentum across this important region."

Before joining Adobe, Skelton was the regional director in Australia and New Zealand for Insight, and has also over 20 years' experience working in senior positions for global organisations including SAP and Cisco Systems.

Adobe saw first quarter earnings and revenue end up at the high end of the company's expectations. It was driven by an additional 405,000 Creative Cloud subscriptions from a year ago, and an annualised recurring revenue approaching US$1 billion for its Creative business.